Zotac GTX 970 AMP! Extreme.

[DND]

Guys what can you say about the card? if it will be compared to the Gigabyte GTX 970 G1? whic is more superior?

[Ripull]

G1.

 

Boom bam.

[APrettyCoolWalrus]

It looks fugly imo (the Zotac)

[EcoBoost]

Guys what can you say about the card? if it will be compared to the Gigabyte GTX 970 G1? whic is more superior?

The G1 is superior in pretty much every way. Amp Extreme just has a fancy cooler, there really isn't any benefit compared to the standard dual-fan $320 Zotac in terms of actual chip binning, VRMs, or any of that. 

[H4X3R]

The AMP! (extreme) cards have binned GPU cores just like the G1 Gaming however in my experience zotac has a slightly better binning process.

 

Cooling wise i'd say both are same "good" in terms of temps and noise.

 

Note that in most countries the G1 Gaming is cheaper and it is basically a less flashy AMP Extreme so i suggest you buy that unless you really like the aesthetics of the AMP Extreme (which i personally do )

[DND]

Well im a sucker for aesthetics haha. so maybe zotac has 1 point from me there. hahaha but performance wise? cooling wise? which is more superior?

[TheMcSame]

I got a 980 as a gift and I have to say it's an okay card.

 

Noise - Decent

Temps - Great, idle ~ 25c and during firestrike it's ~55-65

GPU Core - Ehh... I can't get the rated boost clock much further than 1443 even when I overvolt it with OC+ and put the memory down to stock speeds. Either it doesn't overvolt properly or they don't bin the chips or I just got one of the bad ones.

Memory - Well... Most 980 overclocks that I've seen have had 8GHz effective clock speed on the memory. Right now I'm sat here with 8.3GHz 

 

Seeing as the 970 is just a 980 with less cuda cores I'd expect something similar. Though nothing is guaranteed when overclocking.

[Zweihander]

The Zotac looks cool, but that's about it. 

[CaptainZul]

The gigabyte just looks so damn SEXY

[DND]

So in performance basis the gigabyte is much more superior than the zotac?

[ICantThinkOfAnyGoodName]

So in performance basis the gigabyte is much more superior than the zotac?

They are both pretty much the same. Both have totally overkill coolers, with the AMP! Extreme being slightly more silent, both have high out of the box clocks and both have binned chips. I'd just pick the one that is cheaper where you live.

[pdv789]

What it comes down to from my understanding is they are both the same card. They will both perform the same, both companies use their own binning process. So it really comes down to which one you aesthetically like more or whichever you can afford. The silicon lottery is still going to be based on luck as for the overclocks you will see.

 

I personally don't like the looks of the amp .... The G1 is just so much better looking IMO. The back plate and the extended cooler make it one of my favorite cards aesthetically that I have seen.

[DND]

Oh i see. well if it comes down to the pricing. Both are priced the same in my country. So maybe it will come down to availability if the store has stock or not. thanks for the help guys.

[fringie]

Forum bugged out ;s, lost my post when I was about to post it -.-

 

I got a 980 as a gift and I have to say it's an okay card.

 

Noise - Decent

Temps - Great, idle ~ 25c and during firestrike it's ~55-65

GPU Core - Ehh... I can't get the rated boost clock much further than 1443 even when I overvolt it with OC+ and put the memory down to stock speeds. Either it doesn't overvolt properly or they don't bin the chips or I just got one of the bad ones.

Memory - Well... Most 980 overclocks that I've seen have had 8GHz effective clock speed on the memory. Right now I'm sat here with 8.3GHz 

 

Seeing as the 970 is just a 980 with less cuda cores I'd expect something similar. Though nothing is guaranteed when overclocking.

My limiting factor is also the Max TDP (for the core anyways & I hit 124.7% out of 125% so it must be limiting itself). I can't use the full 90mv it allows you to use even when I max the sliders out. I think I only use 40mv. My max core was 1570mhz (limited by tdp) so I'm slightly surprised you only got 1443, I can get 1520mhz with no extra mv. Your mem clock is really high though, that's probably what's limiting you. Oc your core then do your mem. For me my max on the mem is 7925mhz (and plus some, not quite 7950mhz tho) but I cant keep it stable at over 1530mhz because of the max TDP (1530mhz + 7.8ghz is my max stable atm that gives me the most fps; I'm gonna be wc'ing so removing the fans might add a few extra mhz (or evga's super efficient fans improving oc's on the new ssc coolers is bs)). Overclocking the 980 is weird because of the Max TDP, if you lower your mem you can prob get +100mhz on the core without BIOS hacking. If you hack the BIOS you can get more by just upping the max TDP. If you do feel free to point me to a video of you doing it (I know how to do it but I don't wanna do it until I see someone doing it just in case it kills my card lmao).

 

 

@ OP

The extreme zotac ones are zotacs binned ones and zotacs binning process is good. Most zotac cards I've heard of oc well too (on the core at least). The g1 is binned too but I'd give it to zotac personally. Idk which cooler is better zotac and gigabyte seem to have really good ones so it could go either way; I doubt either are super quiet but these are meant for high oc's it seems. I'd go for the zotac one out of the two but I'd go for a quieter card in general with good oc potential though (like the evga, msi or asus ones if I was air cooling).

[pdv789]

To be fair I think that most people that own a 970 are going to overclock the hell out of them as they are amazingly fun and easy to do so. Plus if you get lucky you can do over 1550mhz on the core which puts you in league with the 980s stock without the $200 premium. I do want to do a bios hack on my card but I have never done that and I don't like the possibility of my bricking $360 lol, at least once I get it under water I'll have more courage because I should have a second one by that time so if one does brick I have another.

 

My limiting factor is also the Max TDP (for the core anyways & I hit 124.7% out of 125% so it must be limiting itself). I can't use the full 90mv it allows you to use even when I max the sliders out. I think I only use 40mv. My max core was 1570mhz (limited by tdp) so I'm slightly surprised you only got 1443, I can get 1520mhz with no extra mv. Your mem clock is really high though, that's probably what's limiting you. Oc your core then do your mem. For me my max on the mem is 7925mhz (and plus some, not quite 7950mhz tho) but I cant keep it stable at over 1530mhz because of the max TDP (1530mhz + 7.8ghz is my max stable atm that gives me the most fps; I'm gonna be wc'ing so removing the fans might add a few extra mhz (or evga's super efficient fans improving oc's on the new ssc coolers is bs)). Overclocking the 980 is weird because of the Max TDP, if you lower your mem you can prob get +100mhz on the core without BIOS hacking. If you hack the BIOS you can get more by just upping the max TDP. If you do feel free to point me to a video of you doing it (I know how to do it but I don't wanna do it until I see someone doing it just in case it kills my card lmao).

 

I thought that the 980s don't overclock as high as the 970s but they perform better because of the extra processors and such? I am very curious though, I understand that lower temps are always good but how is that going to help with overclocking a gpu? Is it purely to keep it cooler to force more power through it or does the lower temps actually play a role in artifact and performance? I mean once your card  is boosting at the 2.0 standard it can't boost higher than that just because it's under water right?

[fringie]

You're probably best of to wait until videos come out for Maxwell BIOS modding (that's what I'm doing). I know how you do it, it's pretty straight forward but it's better to be safe than sorry . Plus by then you'll prob have your 2nd card anyways. Their is a lot of info on the thread on overclockers about it though but I prefer videos personally.

To be fair I think that most people that own a 970 are going to overclock the hell out of them as they are amazingly fun and easy to do so. Plus if you get lucky you can do over 1550mhz on the core which puts you in league with the 980s stock without the $200 premium. I do want to do a bios hack on my card but I have never done that and I don't like the possibility of my bricking $360 lol, at least once I get it under water I'll have more courage because I should have a second one by that time so if one does brick I have another.

 

I thought that the 980s don't overclock as high as the 970s but they perform better because of the extra processors and such? I am very curious though, I understand that lower temps are always good but how is that going to help with overclocking a gpu? Is it purely to keep it cooler to force more power through it or does the lower temps actually play a role in artifact and performance? I mean once your card  is boosting at the 2.0 standard it can't boost higher than that just because it's under water right?

That's not the case :3 (apart from a couple features that I haven't used once.. the 970's only difference (that I know off) is it has 12 less rops (?) which effects the texture fill rate by like 30% which makes the card like 12-15% slower stock vs stock). 1500 mhz on the core and around 8ghz seems to be the average for 980's so they overclock pretty much the same as 970's. Just by the sounds of it (on the nvflash thread it seems to be most gtx 980 owners problem) is the max TDP is the limiting factor for most cards.

 

EVGA's marketing say that since the SSC fans use 20 times less power than the SC fans it means the card can allocate the power into overclocking (new feature in maxwell, not sure if the 970 has it too you'd need to look it up); from my understanding fans use very little power so I think their marketing is bs but we'll see if it makes a difference to my overclock not having to power the fans.

 

I think my memory clock will be more stable on water because the VRM's will be cooler so I might be able to squeeze a few more mhz out of it. Nvidia cards don't have a temperature sensor for the VRM like AMD cards do but watercooling it might help because they might be getting overly hot which could be effecting how high I can overclock it (pretty unlikely tho since most cards can do 8Ghz).

 

 

Fitting a better cooler can also improve overclocking potential, both by making for a more thermally stable environment at stock voltages and of course by offering more thermal headroom to allow for higher voltages to be used. 

If I modify my GPU's BIOS watercooling will help but realistically right now I'm just hoping it will allow me to get slightly better clocks. For most cards water cooling allows for higher overclocks. The gtx 980 is just a weird card when you get to high clock rates because temperatures on the core isn't an issue, voltage isn't an issue but the max tdp is.

[pdv789]

That's amazing. I know it's a silly question but how do you know if it's the max tdp of the card preventing you from overclocking any higher? Probably not the right thread to be posting so many questions about overclocking, lol sorry, but I am curious. I can overclock my card just to 1586 but it starts to artifact. It only reaches a max temp of 56c because I have the fans @100% @ 57c lol. I don't care for noise as I'm trying to overclock purely for higher scores on Valley, I know it's weird but I like taking a program people say it isn't good with and pushing past the limits and seeing what i can do. I don't mean to sound egotistical but I do have the highest score for a single 970     It just isn't enough though lol, I want more.

[DND]

 

 

@ OP

The extreme zotac ones are zotacs binned ones and zotacs binning process is good. Most zotac cards I've heard of oc well too (on the core at least). The g1 is binned too but I'd give it to zotac personally. Idk which cooler is better zotac and gigabyte seem to have really good ones so it could go either way; I doubt either are super quiet but these are meant for high oc's it seems. I'd go for the zotac one out of the two but I'd go for a quieter card in general with good oc potential though (like the evga, msi or asus ones if I was air cooling).

oh i see. well the only 970's available here in my country that you mention that is good is msi. the only asus one that stores in my country has are the 770 and 780. what model of the msi would you recommend to me?

[TheMcSame]

Your mem clock is really high though, that's probably what's limiting you. Oc your core then do your mem.

You might want to read my post again

 

GPU Core - Ehh... I can't get the rated boost clock much further than 1443 even when I overvolt it with OC+ and put the memory down to stock speeds.

[fringie]

oh i see. well the only 970's available here in my country that you mention that is good is msi. the only asus one that stores in my country has are the 770 and 780. what model of the msi would you recommend to me?

The gaming/twin frozr one. It has a semi passive mode where the fans turns off at idle which I know the g1 doesn't have unless you hack it's BIOS which makes it a lot more valuable in my opinion. The MSI one should be a a decent value cheaper than the zotac/gigabyte g1 cards as well. I'd get the MSI one and spend the money elsewhere personally.

 

You might want to read my post again

 

Whoopsies. Bad luck . At least your mem oc's well ..

[DND]

The gaming/twin frozr one. It has a semi passive mode where the fans turns off at idle which I know the g1 doesn't have unless you hack it's BIOS which makes it a lot more valuable in my opinion. The MSI one should be a a decent value cheaper than the zotac/gigabyte g1 cards as well. I'd get the MSI one and spend the money elsewhere personally.

 

Whoopsies. Bad luck . At least your mem oc's well ..

is that the dragon one the 4g i think?

[fringie]

is that the dragon one the 4g i think?

All of the aftermarket MSI ones should feature that feature. Best to double check on their website to double check. MSI also announced some new versions of the card at CES yesterday which should be coming out soon.

[DND]

All of the aftermarket MSI ones should feature that feature. Best to double check on their website to double check. MSI also announced some new versions of the card at CES yesterday which should be coming out soon.

oh i see maybe ill just wait for the new cards hahah. still don't have the budget to buy one atm so maybe ill just wait hahaha .

[AlexTheGamer]

I have the gigabyte gtx 970 g1 gaming and I have to say it just looks so damn f*cking sexy... and it gets its job very well done!!!

[fringie]

oh i see maybe ill just wait for the new cards hahah. still don't have the budget to buy one atm so maybe ill just wait hahaha .

, I don't think theirs a big difference between any of them just as a heads up.

 

 

All of the aftermarket MSI ones should feature that feature. Best to double check on their website to double check. MSI also announced some new versions of the card at CES yesterday which should be coming out soon.

Dafuq was with me repeating myself, it was 7:06 am so I was probably asleep when I wrote that .